


Ghosts of the Resistance

by Iamprongsie



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Introspection, Stormtrooper Rebellion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 15:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16390583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamprongsie/pseuds/Iamprongsie
Summary: Inspired by this remix of Nina Cried Power (http://shakespork.tumblr.com/post/177936414483/soundbite-tumblr-wont-let-upload-full-due-to), the ghosts of the Resistance help the stormtroopers rebel and help the Resistance live to fight another day.





	Ghosts of the Resistance

**Author's Note:**

> Largely inspired by this remix of Nina Cried Power (http://shakespork.tumblr.com/post/177936414483/soundbite-tumblr-wont-let-upload-full-due-to)

The First Order decides to investigate the D’Qar base after the evacuation, because they think it could be a trick. The only thing they find in the empty hangar is a recording of that song, and it echoes weirdly off of the walls and some of the troopers swear they can hear more voices singing it. 

And then the slightly force sensitive troopers can almost _see_ a steady line of people, starting with all the Resistance members, led by an old man with a battered lethris jacket and old bloodstripes. They can see the Hosnian System next, everyone who was near it when they took it apart, and the troopers can only feel a sense of immense shame, as the realisation that they took innocent lives finally hits home. 

The other troopers can see it now, can hear the song echo off of the empty rooms, can feel the pain that they and their kind have caused. 

And the room seems to extend even further and they can see all the veterans of the civil war, with an old togruta and an older clone leading the charge, a woman with short red hair and a decorative chain around her neck standing behind, while the people of Alderaan and Scarif and Jedha stand tall and proud, the queen and viceroy of Alderaan standing next to the rebels, an imperial droid and an imperial pilot, a lost girl, a spy, the guardians. 

And the room stretches even further and they can see the clones and the jedi, standing tall and united with the senators, and three people shine more brightly than the rest. General Skywalker stands with his hand in a woman’s arm, her hair full of flowers while a shorter man stands on the other side of him, his beard and hair flickering between copper and while while his face gains lines and loses them. There’s a line of Jedi on one side, a Kel Dor and a Korun and a Togruta and many humans, and a line of clones on the other side, their helmets and armour painted with their signs, all unique in an army made to be the same. ARC’s with two pauldrons stand next to commanders and captains and pilots and troopers, all together even though the end was brutal and brother fought brother to save or kill their jedi. 

And they’re all singing, every single one of them, and the troopers realise that they may not be on the right side, if the resistance is backed by this many ghosts, if even the least sensitive ones out of them all can see it. 

So they go back to the First Order with nothing to report, but they start rumours amongst their fellow troopers, and rebellion starts. 

And as the troopers come back to the light, they swear they can hear heavily-accented voices pounding up and down the corridors, even when the sergeants stick their heads out of the door to check and no one is there. One day they hear the _Vode An_ , the old battle cry of the Clones. And this is where it begins.

Kylo Ren, however, is still haunted by his grandfather. Only this time, he keeps being asked to turn back, it’s not too late the light can save you love can save you as it saved me but he can’t, the dark is too strong within him and it eats him up. The light and dark rage inside him for several days until he collapses on the bridge and dies instantly. 

The troopers are shocked, but they move quickly and make plans to escape (the ones that are loyal will not tell on them, they understand loyalty to friends and family even more than their loyalty to the Order but they still have a duty), while the deck officers squabble and fight until even General Hux is killed in the carnage. 

And so they fight their way out, and it is brutal. The troopers are better trained, more numerous, but the officers take no prisoners and fight dirty. 

But the Ghosts are back, and they aid them as they escape. Later, when records of the battles are being taken, some will recall seeing Kenobi and Skywalker fighting side by side, brothers once again, matched stroke for stroke with their brilliant blue blades (all the troopers have ever known is jagged red, and if they see that then they are not long for this mortal plane). Others say they saw a group of rebels, a young woman and a young man embracing on a beach, two guardians, as close in death as they were in life, and the troopers flying the transports can feel frantic breath on the backs of their necks and a murmur of we are rogue one please pick up in their ears. Others say they saw a jedi with a scar over his eyes and a boy with blue hair, flanked by a twi’lek and a lasat and a woman in mandalorian armour. Some see a boy with sandy hair and a saber he barely knows how to wield, some see a gunslinger with a scar on his chin and a swagger in his step, while others see a mountain of a man, with hair half up and a scruffy beard and a green lightsaber, fighting against a man with a red face and yellow eyes. Others can see a squadron of pilots, and the calls of Rogue Squadron fill the air as they fight. Some see a platoon of clone troopers at their side, cutting through droids as they’re cutting through officers, hear strains of _Coruscanta a’den mhi, vode an_ while the battle rages strong around them, feel the warm and comforting presence of the brothers, and they feel like this is where they belong, on the ground and dirty and kicking but good, they’re fighting for good this time. The more bloodthirsty of them are visited by the Death Watch and a man who looks and sounds like the clones but wears blue and silver and there’s a kid at his side. A multitude of them find themselves guided by politicians, a blonde woman who knows where to punch someone to incapacitate them impermanently, a tall man with his wife who speak in an accent long lost to the Empire’s destruction, while a short woman with flowers in her hair directs the escape routes and shows them how to disable a droid with one shot. Some are fighting alongside a clone with blonde hair and a strange bird-like design on his helmet, while a togruta leads the charge, green lightsabers making short work of their adversaries while her blue and white lekku fly out behind her.

But most of them are visited by the innocents, all the people of Jedha and Scarif and Alderaan, and the Hosnian system, the second Jedi Temple, and these troopers fight the most because they know that it’s their duty to protect the innocent.

Eventually, as the battle wears on, the ghosts disappear as the troopers come closer and closer to their destination. They’ve done their duty, the galaxy is saved again, and they can rest. 

*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Some say the Resistance is haunted by all that came before them. Others say the haunting and powerful song they play at every remembrance echoes oddly off of the hangar roofs and gives the illusion that many are singing, while others still refuse to entertain the idea that those we love have never truly left us. 

Still, the song plays, even as they leave their base and head for Crait. The rumours prevail as they travel across space, and in the quiet places on board the transports the topic quickly turns to the ghosts of the resistance.

Poe tells stories of his mother, his own personal ghost, and all the pilots nod because there’s someone with them as well, guiding the controls so that a shot just misses them, so a missile is diverted, to bring them home. 

Leia talks of seeing her parents in the old Rebellion bases, as well as the Resistance bases. Her father is tall and kind, her mother shorter and kinder. She speaks of them as though are still here, and the Resistance bows their heads and name their dead yet again, mark the transport walls, anything to make sure that their names and ghosts survive even if they’re wiped out today. 

Some of them can feel their ghosts with them. The intelligence operatives hear a quiet voice and see a man in a dusty cantina, secretive and quiet. The soldiers hear the voices of their loved ones, either at home or lying in the ground or in space. 

When the walls are covered in scrawls of names and dates and places, they sing until they land. They sing when they fly into the last battle, battered skimmers against AT-AT’s and cannons, and their voices reach the troopers as they prepare to fire. 

When they get to the Falcon, it feels like they’re coming home. Even though they’re scared shitless, and tired, and their whole movement’s almost been razed into the ground, they pile into the rooms and open up the smuggling compartments and start the whole process again, leaving their marks in the old ship. Poe finds Rey standing watch over Finn, who’s sleeping with his head on Rose’s bunk. He teaches them the song, and they add their marks to the walls above the cockpit. 

And as the days stretch on and they begin to recover, they begin to hear voices around the ship. General Organa looks happier and more relaxed, even though they’re all under more stress than ever before. She can see her parents cuddled up in the corner of the hold, her father’s cape wrapped around both of them to defend against the cold of space. They tell her that they’re proud of her, that she’s grown from a young girl to an exceptional woman. She and Rey see Han almost everywhere, sitting up at the Dejarik table with a mug of caf, sitting in the cockpit making comments while Chewie shows Rey and Poe how to fly the ship, wandering around checking on all the people that may as well be her children now, her people that she’s led through fire and loss and unimaginable pain and they’re still here. 

Luke is quieter, and he mainly keeps to himself. He hovers at her left shoulder, Han on her right as some form of influence. She can still feel Luke’s pain and sorrow, pain for what his nephew became and sorrow for what he did to Leia when he left. 

Sometimes, when someone wakes up screaming, she can feel a sudden rush of air go past her as a ghost goes over to the person, comforting them in the way that only the supernatural can. Sometimes it’s Shara, looking after Poe and Finn and Rey and Rose, while sometimes she can see Padme and Anakin and General Kenobi, or Captain Rex and Fulcrum, Ashla, Ahsoka, whatever she went by. She sees all her old friends, Sabine and Ezra and Jyn and Cassian and everyone who gave their lives for the service of freedom. She is the last one left, left to fight for the next generation while almost everyone she knows has passed on. The ghosts help her to feel less alone, help her to feel like less of a sham, leading her troops into death. 

And then one day, the ghosts disappear almost entirely. 

Almost two days later, they appear, with thousands of Stormtroopers all bearing the same news. 

The First Order has fallen from the inside, imploded with officers against troopers and Hux is dead, Ren is dead, Phasma died long ago. 

And so the Democratic Alliance of systems is begun, and Leia can join everyone else.


End file.
